Molina wins maiden race at Estoril
Miguel Molina has taken his first World Series by Renault victory at Estoril. The Spanish Pons driver made a superior start from pole-sitter Julian Jousse, and controlled the race to the chequered flag
Jousse maintained second place into the first corner, aided by a clash between the second row of championships rivals Ben Hanley and Alvaro Parente. Hanley somersaulted against the pitwall into retirement in the incident, while a delayed Parente survived to take sixth place on home soil.
Alvaro Barba had a lonely race, making good use of an early pit strategy to finish third, six seconds ahead of Dutchman Giedo van der Garde.
Hanley appeared to falter, momentarily, away from the start, allowing Parente to draw alongside. Bertrand Baguette joined the tussle, running three-abreast as he squeezed between Parente and the pitwall.
Hanley made an initial move across the road towards Parente, only for Alvaro to make a very small jink in Ben's direction. Touching wheels sent Hanley into a cartwheel, but the Prema car righted itself against the pitwall, before coming rest.
"I just felt a bang that sent me into a roll," said Hanley. "After the race I saw some television highlights and it looked to me like he (Parente) steered into me. It has not only ruined this race but means I have to start from the back tomorrow."
Molina opened up eight tenths of a second lead on the first lap from Jousse, Aleshin in third and Baguette closing in on the Russian in fourth. Parente completed the opening lap eighth place.
The leaders spread out early in proceedings; Molina lapped a steady four tenths of a second quicker than Jousse, who in turn was pulling a way at three tenths of a second a lap from Aleshin.
Barba pitted from seventh place on lap seven and Parente came in for service from his Tech 1 crew a lap later, rejoining in 18th.
Baguette's run in fourth looked in jeopardy when smoke spilled from the KTR car's left rear tyre on lap ten. Bertrand immediately brought the car in, but his stop did not go according to routine. A lengthy delay following a cross-threaded wheel nut put paid to any hopes the Belgian may have had of scoring points.
Molina made his stop at the end of lap eleven, enjoying a 5.2 seconds change and emerging in seventh place on the road.
The winner had his only moment of the race on rejoining the circuit, as cold tyres contributed to a big slide. "I didn't have a good balance with the tyres after the stop," said Miguel, "after that I just tried to conserve the car."
Jousse was also struggling with his handling and settled for second, some ten seconds adrift. "I had big oversteer," said Julien. "My car was definitely better in qualifying."
The last change for position among the front runners occurred with five laps remaining, as a loose wheel nut cruelly robbed Mikhail Aleshin of the final place on the podium.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Miguel Molina Pons Racing 40:36.310 2. Julien Jousse Tech 1 Racing + 10.730 3. Alvaro Barba International Draco Racing + 16.669 4. Giedo van der Garde Victory Engineering + 22.151 5. Filipe Albuquerque Epsilon Euskadi + 22.654 6. Alvaro Parente Tech 1 Racing + 23.677 7. James Walker Fortec Motorsport + 24.558 8. Fairuz Fauzy Cram Competition + 25.109 9. Milos Pavlovic International Draco Racing + 27.533 10. Clivio Piccione RC Motorsport + 28.037 11. Marco Bonanomi RC Motorsport + 29.296 12. Robert Wickens Carlin Motorsport + 30.187 13. Davide Valsecchi Epsilon Euskadi + 30.765 14. Frederic Vervisch GD Racing + 31.621 15. Pasquale di Sabatino GD Racing + 33.604 16. Michael Herck Red Devil Team Comtec + 37.540 17. Carlos Iaconelli Pons Racing + 38.873 18. Richard Philippe Fortec Motorsport + 39.900 19. Salvador Duran Interwetten.com + 42.518 20. Bertrand Baguette KTR + 42.740 21. Daniil Move Interwetten.com +1:02.587 22. Xavier Maassen Prema Powerteam +1:03.165 23. Guillaume Moreau KTR +1:03.385 24. Pippa Mann Cram Competition + 1 lap 25. Johannes Theobald Eurointernational + 1 lap 26. Julian Theobald Eurointernational + 1 lap NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Driver Team On Lap Mikhail Aleshin Carlin Motorsport 23 Alejandro Nunez Red Devil Team Comtec 2 Ben Hanley Prema Powerteam 1
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments